I am very new to most of this stuff so forgive my ignorance. I have a recording DAW I use called a Lexicon Omega. The product works great most of the time but has a design flaw that causes it to over heat and I lose connection from usb to my PC. I have taken the units pc boards out of the chasse and constructed my own case to have more room for air flow and cooling. I would very much like to add a fan to the unit for additional cooling purposes. I was thinking that I could solder one on pretty easy to the main power connector inside the unit. I really dont want to use a seperate power supply just for the fan. The unit runs off a 9v 1300ma power supply. Of course 5v or 12v fans seem to be my only option so Im wondering what is the best way to go about this. Should I try and convert the 9v source to 5v using some type of voltage converter or a 7805 regulator or just use a 12v fan with a 9v source. And also will I need to up the milliampage on the power supply to keep things working properly. I do not yet have the fan purchased and I don't need a ton of airflow, just enough to add a little extra cooling. Any tips or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

 

How much current does your Omega require?.. With only a 1300mA power supply you probably don't have much left to power a fan as a 5V fan will require at least a few hundred milliamps. You could also use a 12V fan.. but I'd lean towards simply hooking up a fan to another wall wart type power supply and calling it a day. Even just a 100CFM fan can make a HUGE difference in operating temperature.

 

I'd choose the 12v fan operating at 9v over the other choice of dropping 9v down to 5v with a linear (heat generating!) regulator. You should be able to find one drawing less than 100mA (especially at reduced supply voltage) and hopefully that will not be too much burden on your supply.

It wouldn't be anywhere near as easy to find one small enough, but there are cabinet fans meant to run on 120v AC.

 

Excellent. Thanks for the recommendations. I believe I have a 3000ma power supply that fits my Lexicon. I believe I will opt for the 12v fan and use the other adapter. I was leaning toward this anyway, but wanted to know others opinions, or if I was forgetting something all together. Thanks again.